Becoming Achilles: Child-sacrifice, War, and Misrule in the lliad and Beyond

Viewing the Iliad and myth through the lens of modern psychology, in Becoming Achilles: Child-Sacrifice, War, and Misrule in the Iliad and Beyond,Richard Holway shows how the epic underwrites individual and communal catharsis and denial. Sacrificial childrearing generates but also threatens agonistic, glory-seeking ancient Greek cultures. Not only aggression but knowledge of sacrificial parenting must be purged.

Just as Zeus contrives to have threats to his regime play out harmlessly (to him...